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Effect of commercial and synthesized multiwalled carbon nanotubes on the electrical and thermal properties of polystyrene

Abstract

Multiwalled carbon nanotubes (JMWCNTs) were synthesized using varying amounts of ferrocene catalyst (5-8 wt% of hydrocarbon precursor) and Jatropha seed oil as hydrocarbon precursor by chemical vapour deposition (CVD). The synthesized carbon material revealed highly entangled MWCNTs with some amount of amorphous carbon with very few defects. The range of product yield (compared to total weight of hydrocarbon source) was 20 - 28 % being highest in the case of nanotubes produced using 7 % (w/w) catalyst. The carbon nanotubes prepared by this method had diameter ranging from 50-100 nm and lengths from hundreds of nanometres to several micrometers. A decrease in diameter of nanotubes was observed along with increase in catalyst content upto 7% (w/w). The morphology of nanotubes synthesized was studied by high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Raman spectroscopy. The effect of above prepared nanotubes and commercial multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CMWCNTs) on electrical, thermal, barrier and morphological properties of polystyrene was studied. Polystyrene nanocomposites prepared with JMWCNTs gave better improvement in properties as compared to nanocomposites prepared using CMWCNTs

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